IC Diamond 24 Giveaway/ Reliability Survey

Okay cool.
Then i follow up with a heat & cool down cycle?

 

Actually, when you screw the heatsink, you can screws each screw just a bit in the numbered order and repeat until they are tightened (like you would when changing a car tire). That way you'll be gradually applying rather equal pressure on the paste while screwing the HS in place and you won't need to apply pressure before hand.

One more thing, saying ICD is viscous would be an understatement, apply steady and firm pressure on the syringe and be patient. It will take some time to come out and you don't want a huge blob coming out from applying too much pressure. It's rather easy to get a 3mm diameter pea that way. If the die on your 6970m is the same size a the one on a 5870m, then 3mm is all you'll need. Watch the temps go way down afterwards .

 

no with ic diamond you do not put a grain of rice size amount you put a pea sized amount. there is no heat cool down cycle its like an instant break in. I never used water to make it easier to come out since i had no issue applying the force to make it come out. Although i will admit it was at least 5 times more pressure then normal pastes. From what i remember the syringe was redesigned to have a larger hole so it should be easier then the tube i got 1-1/2 yrs ago.

Im currently trying to gather some numbers to match the numbers i gave over a yr and a half ago when i first applied the paste but dont have most of the games i used anymore lol but ill post what i currently have down below


and the previous results
http://forum.notebookreview.com/5266397-post431.html

overall a very small increase in temps which is very surprising since this laptop is on at least 10hrs a day

 

According to Innovation Cooling a constant 50psi or higher clamp force required for "immediate" curing, or two hours as they say. Otherwise a "week or more" is required. I'm certain most laptop fastening systems don't apply 50psi to a CPU or GPU, and may take up to two weeks to "set in".

 

well for me it seemed instant since my temps were very low after applying but i dunno how much psi is put on it

 

I'm a complete noob at this, so please pardon me if this sounds like a silly question: Will a pea-sized amount of paste be enough for my i5-520m and HD5650 each, or will it be too much? If so, then how much (approximately) should I put?

 

That's enough. Definitely no more!
Remember, you need a very thin film in between the die and the heatsink.


--

 

I just went to thier website to see what method they suggest to apply the TIM.


Application

 

So 5.0-5.5mm should be just right, am I correct in saying that?

 

My only concern is on mobile chips you need to make sure you get as close to 100% coverage as possible because there is no IHS, it is the actual die face you are covering, so any voids and that silicon is not being cooled. This is what makes me leary of the "pea-sized" ball you apply.

 

The ball always spreads evenly.

However with a thin layer you can get air bubbles that are the voids you mention.

 

Sorry, not a void, bad choice of words, but coverage. With an IHS when you compress the ball of TIM, it spreads out over an area larger than the die so you're ensured to get full coverage. But on laptops, since there is no IHS, it's directly on the die, you need to make sure it covers the ENTIRE surface.

 

So I should add just enough to cover the entire die, but not so much that it leaks out from the sides? It's hard to say how much, considering I haven't reapplied any paste for my current laptop yet

 

That's why I'm saying I don't entirely agree with the ball method on a laptop. With IC Diamond though you shouldn't have to worry because it's non conductive if you use too much.

One user here had a good link to a method using masking tape on the heatsink and running a credit card across the masking tape to ensure an even thickness and going across enough surface to cover the CPU / GPU. But then you have to make sure you know where the CPU is in reference to the heatsink, but usually after the heatsink has been applied to the CPU, you see witness marks on the heatsink surface outlining where the CPU sits.

 

Thats what i used. i made sure the blob was centered on the chips and then i just made sure i mounted the heat sink evenly so the TIM would flated out evenly.

So far so good. 30min After the aplication i was idle on a flat table @ just under 30c in a room that was about 75f.

Ill get some real data points later with screen shots.

 

Just got mine today. Will do a repaste soon. Also pasting my desktop.

Out of curiosity, what is the shelf life of this stuff?

 

i dont know how long its supposed to last but im going on a little over a yr and a half and ive only seen a minor heat increase (could be due to ambient temp not sure what temp i made the first chart with)

 

People who are worried about the paste not spreading:

This is only really a problem for desktops because the paste has to cover a much larger area, thus requiring a lot more force to spread it out from pressure alone. Provided you put the heatink down straight, you shouldn't have any problems.

If you want, put a bead of the stuff between two pieces of glass. You sould be able to get a ring 3 cm across quite easily which is far larger than the average laptop cores surface area.

 

You can easily perform trial-and-error on your laptop if you have plenty of paste.

Just put an average pea size, fully assemble the heatsink. Then disassemble the heatsink to see if it covered the entire die. If it did not, increase the amount of the paste next time. If it leaked around the die than decrease the amount.

I know this will waste some paste but I am assuming you will do this once in a few years. Or even may be once in the entire life of your laptop.


--

 

Okay. Thanks for the help guys

 

ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS

I've repasted with mx4 and after 5 months its degrading and would really love to give this a try

 

Did you guys receive any confirmation? I just sent my address to [email protected] and I didnt receive any messages from them.

 

i havent sent my address to them yet as i havent finished posting my results yet. im looking for the games i tested that are not on my steam list. that and just finding the time to do the test runs is somewhat of a challenge lately.

 

I have received the confirmation but haven't received ICD7 yet, I don't know the length of time it takes to deliver from USA to UK.

 

Hope they can ship here in the Philippines. My Room temp here is about 30c + the humidity. Need to repaste soon.

 

I didn't know if we were getting confirm emails or not actually

Actually I wasn't too sure what else to email besides an address... -shrug-

 

ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS

 

I didnt get any kind of email from them. just a shinny tube a few days later.

This stuff cleans up nice! ive been doing a heatsink mod and have repasted a few times already.

Im a lil sad tho. the nipple on the siringe broke off so its a bit harder to get a perfect ball shape now but i dont seem to be trapping any air.

 

Damn, gotta get the thermal paste no matter what.

ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS.

I got three potential computers for repaste, my own Clevo <3, my brothers AMD desktop build and my stepdads i3 notebook.

 

It's hard to find ICD even in Canada. The only website i found had some (where i got my icd7 tube) doesn't list it anymore. I don't even want to think on how hard it will be to find overseas. Besides, my trick for test results is to start furmark, prime 95 or whatever program you use to stress your components then go take a shower, that way you're sure you won't be using the computer when testing the thermals and you won't be leaving it running for hours either.

 

ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS

I'll give this a shot compared to stock in the Lenovo that I use for classwork, gaming with my external GTX 460, and Photoshop Lightroom. Living in DC in the summer gets pretty toasty.

 

There are still samples available - we shipped yesterday, today and sending more out tomorrow.

 

Il be camping behind the post box. ^^
Im hoping a repaste should shave of 5 to 10 degrees of my load temps.
My idle temps are already good at 45c but maybe i can go down to 40c?

 

Canada Post is in lockout now so i don't know when i'll get my paste . Oh well, i probably have one or two repastes left in my tube of ICD7, hope you get yours soon DEagleson.

40C seems somewhat reasonable as n expectation, the awesomeness is more in the lower load temps though.

 

What courier did you guys use to ship international?

 

Should take maybe 1 week (2 if im unlucky) before it reaches my doorstep.
Thanks to all who posted tips on how to apply the thermal compound.

I only used Arctic Silver 5 before, but it dries up fast.

 

Meh, I got a good year and few months out of mine, but its starting to mess with my northbridge's thermal pad I guess since it's starting to dry out, might have to try the copper penny trick... and I'm wondering how well that actually works

 

You can buy copper shimms off eBay. Or clip a fin off a old heatsink you got laying around.

 

I don't have any old copper heatsinks... or old heatsinks at all laying around, nor do I have money to be spending on ebay

 

"ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS"

Just in time for the cooling mod i'm about to perform on my Gx640!!!

 

"ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS"

 

You're not eligible. You have not been signed up for 6 months, nor do you have 50 posts. Come back in December

 

Alright, got mine in the mail today, although I probably won't be tearing this thing apart until late tonight

Before I get to post this, before I touch anything inside it =\

 

"ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS"

Ah, was referred here by a buddy on NBR. It's getting hotter here in SoCal, so good time to pick out my first thermal paste. Why not have my first be the best/most popular one?

Thanks!

 

[Removed from processor upgrade and no constants]

Didn't you poll ocn and [h] a few years ago?

 

Here's a test I ran right after repasting at some 3am in the morning. My desk is around 80f though and the way my laptop's cooling works it kind of created a loop of air that ended up just recycling itself due to the coolballs

Although this was Furmark + Linpack64 for 20 minutes, the previous one was a 2 minute test before I stopped it because... 93c is bad.

 

smaller contact area could be well over 50 PSI in any event I would like do some contact and pressure testing testing on a few of this group's laptops as I have none in my library I could use 5 or so samples any volunteers?

Test is simple, C/P paper is placed between sink and die sink is mounted and then unmounted and paper is removed with Raw image that is sent out for lab analysis. sample report below of what it looks like

 

ON MY HONOR IN EXCHANGE FOR FREE COMPOUND I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO TEST AND POST MY RESULTS and to AND TO UPDATE THOSE RESULTS EVERY 3 MONTHS

 

Probably time to define a procedure for laptops, we have not had much urgency as you guys have been doing pretty well on your own.

Better too much as the excess just squeezes out, we have mic'ed this and @ 60 psi ambient room temp for 2 hours and Bond line thickness (BLT) is 95% and overnight 99%, of/ resolves down to the average particle size.

too little has the potential for a bad install which on a notebook is more of a problem than you would have on a PC if it had to be redone.